European accounting

Thomas Ahrens Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at the London School of
Economics where he has been working since 1996. His research is mostly qualitative.
It is broadly concerned with accounting and organisational process. Thomas has
compared management accounting practices in contemporary British and German firms
and studied the uses of performance measurement systems in a large U.K. restaurant
chain. He has also written on comparative and case study research in accounting.
Thomas’ latest research project is investigating performance measurement in British and
German banks.

In contemporary debates about democratic governance, the concept of
accountability is hard to avoid. At least from a European perspective, recent
innovations in political and administrative decision-making have multiplied
opportunities for citizens to hold to account those who exercise governmental
authority. Or so we are told. Whether busy modernizing constitutional
structures or realigning public services along market-led lines, our political
representatives have proclaimed a new era of open and responsive government.

Eleven million tonnes of waste are produced yearly by the European pulp and paper industry, of which 70% originates from the production of deinked recycled paper. Wastes are very diverse in composition and consist of rejects, different types of sludges and ashes in mills having on-site incineration treatment. The production of pulp and paper from virgin pulp generates less waste but the waste has similar properties to waste from the production of deinked pulp, although with less inorganics [...].

Accurate network trac measurement is required for ac-
counting, bandwidth provisioning and detecting DoS at-
tacks. These applications see the trac as a collection of
ﬂows they need to measure. As link speeds and the number
of ﬂows increase, keeping a counter for each ﬂow is too ex-
pensive (using SRAM) or slow (using DRAM). The current
state-of-the-art methods (Cisco's sampled NetFlow) which
log periodically sampled packets are slow, inaccurate and
resource-intensive.

This third edition takes as its theme ‘increasing harmonization in financial statements;
mixed comparability and diversity in assurance and corporate reporting’.
January 2005 marked a significant stage in the move towards acceptance of international
financial reporting standards (IFRS) as the basis for harmonizing financial statements.
It was the date from which listed companies in member states of the European
Union (EU) were required to apply IFRS in their consolidated financial statements, in
place of the accounting standards of their home countries.

The purpose of this chapter is to outline a comprehensive framework for ﬁnancial statement analysis. Because ﬁnancial statements provide the most widely available data on public corporations’ economic activities, investors and other stakeholders rely on ﬁnancial reports to assess the plans and performance of ﬁrms and corporate managers. A variety of questions can be addressed by business analysis using ﬁnancial statements, as shown in the following examples: • A security analyst may be interested in asking: “How well is the firm I am following performing?...

Irecently took a European executive to his first U.S. basketball game. Although
I had received two tickets in the first row, for the first half of the game I took
him to seats up much higher that I had also received tickets for. I wanted him to
get an overview of the game before getting close to see the details. My concern
was that if we started by being in the front row, he would get lost in the specifics
without understanding the overall process.
In the business context of this book, over the past several decades, I have been
involved in many major mergers and acquisitions—some...

We interviewed experts to explain the growth of Luxembourg and Ireland. Tiny Luxembourg grew to
be a European mutual fund hub, fueled by favorable bank secrecy and tax laws as well as its central
location. The growth of Ireland (Dublin in particular) on the other hand, was driven by a tax advantage
given to management companies and a highly educated labor force. In particular, until recently, fund
management companies paid a tax of only 10% on their income (relative to a 32% corporate income tax
in Ireland) and they were allowed extra deductions for rental...

My interest in the relationship between tort law and the implementation of
international human rights standards, particularly the European Convention on
Human Rights, was prompted by a series of cases decided in the last decade that
challenged the English courts to make public authorities accountable for their
actions. Perhaps the most notable was the House of Lords’ decision in X v.

Shortly after my arrival at the OECD in 1996, I came upon the study by Angus Maddison
“Monitoring the World Economy 1820–1992”. It is a fascinating and stimulating work providing a
complete coverage of the world economy during the period in question. It brought together data of
some 56 countries accounting for 93 per cent of the world output and 87 per cent of the world population
and world exports. It never left my desk. Probably I was not alone in my appreciation of this quite
extraordinary work, as I kept coming on references to it in the work of other authors....

As the significance of business improvement districts (BIDs) has grown in recent
years in the governance of urban and metropolitan areas, not only in North America
but also in a variety of European, Asian, and African countries, academic interest in
them followed. BIDs are self-assessment districts that are initiated and governed by
property or businessowners
and authorized by state or local governments to operate
in designated
urban and suburban
geographic areas.

Some twenty five countries have experimented with environmental accounting over the
past twenty years. A few European countries have established physical accounting
systems which are routinely compiled and applied to economic and environmental
policy-making. Many other countries have undertaken more limited or one-time
experiments and case studies with monetary environmental accounts, focused on issues
such as forestry, soil erosion, and minerals depletion. A few examples suggest the
richness of their experience.

Wim A. Van der Stede is the CIMA Professor of Accounting and Financial Management at the
London School of Economics. He is actively involved with both the American (AAA) and European
(EAA) Accounting Associations, including as President of the AAA Management Section; the AAA
Finance Committee; the EAA Doctoral Colloquium; and the EAA Publications Committee. Wim has
published extensively in both practitioner and academic journals and has won several awards, including
the AAA Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature and IFAC’s Article of Merit.

The inclusion of Business Angels in the range of ‘informal’ (as opposed to ‘institutional’) investors
provides us an indication that there are potential difficulties in measuring the size of the Business
Angel community. Mason and Harrison identify two main problems, identification and definition.
Regarding the former, in his seminal work on Business Angels, William Wetzel (1983) notes that
the total population of Business Angels is unknown and probably unknowable on account of their
invisibility, desire for anonymity, and the undocumented nature of their investing.

Diploma thesis is written and submitted by the students in universities of some countries in continental Europe to get their Diplom degrees. In German speaking countries “Diplom” is equivalent to a combination of Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree. In Finland and some other Eastern European countries Diplomas are awarded only for Engineers. Most Diploma theses are written on Research work on Engineering, Technology and Science Topics. Diploma Thesis is a compulsory requirement for awarding a Diplom in these nations.

For accounts with managed rates, we can make rate changes immediately if the change is of benefit to you.
For accounts with managed rates where the account is a fixed term deposit or denominated in US dollars or another non
European Economic Area (EEA) currency, we will personally notify you at least 30 days before making a change to the rate
which is not favourable to you.
For accounts with managed rates where the account is denominated in sterling, euros or another EEA currency or is not
a fixed term deposit, we will personally notify you at least 2 months before...

Business Angels increasingly co-invest with other angels and with early stage funds to fill the early-
stage equity gap. Business Angel networks (BANs) facilitate the matching of investment demand
and supply; they aim to organize and link angels, as well as to attract prospective investment
targets (investees) to angels and match both parties for business contacts. Such networks come in
a number of forms; some are more like investment clubs, while others are set up on a regional or
national basis. Some networks concentrate on a certain industry or sector.

We examine the causes and consequences of European real estate firms’ decisions
to provide investment property fair values prior to the required disclosure of this information
under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find evidence that investor
demand for fair value information—reflected in more dispersed ownership—and a firm’s
commitment to transparency increase the likelihood of providing fair values prior to their
required provision under International Accounting Standard 40 – Investment Property.

Despite attempts to secure harrnonisation of accounting practice, significant variations in
accounting rules and practice continue to arise in European countries, variations which give
rise to compliance costs for multinational companies.
Firstly, this paper considers the relevance of international accounting harmonisation for
European business. It then proceeds to examine accounting regulation in three countries:
Spain, Sweden and Austria, highlighting the key regulatory issues of the 'true and fair' view
requirement and the link between taxation and accounting.

Most of the world’s work is done through organizations—groups of people who work
together to accomplish one or more objectives. In doing its work, an organization uses
resources—labor, materials, various services, buildings, and equipment. These resources
need to be financed, or paid for. To work effectively, the people in an organization
need information about the amounts of these resources, the means of financing
them, and the results achieved through using them. Parties outside the organization
need similar information to make judgments about the organization.